Leeds Rhinos captain hails rookie's 'world class' skill, reveals biggest team improvement ahead of Hull KR

Handley moved from wing to centre this year and has been playing alongside 20-year-old Riley Lumb, who made four senior appearances last term and is ever-present in 2025. Lumb had been expected to play second fiddle to star signing Maika Sivo, but the Fijian winger’s long-term injury – in Handley’s testimoinial game – gave him an unexpected chance and he has scored six tries in 10 appearances so far.

That form earned him a new deal until the end of 2029, which means he is contracted to Rhinos longer than any other player and Handley reckons the winger is an outstanding prospect. “Riley is improving every week,” the skipper said.

“He works hard on his game and nothing much fazes him - he is pretty level-headed and takes things in his stride. Some of the catches he is coming up with are world-class. Not many people would be able to take a ball like he is doing so he has earned his contract and hopefully he has many more years to come at the Rhinos.”

Handley had his own Super League breakthrough in similar circumstances in 2015, following an injury to Tom Briscoe. He learned his trade as a winger outside centre Kallum Watkins, who is now back at the club and made a try-scoring second debut against Huddersfield Giants last week, playing in the pack.

“He is a fantastic player,” Handley said of the 34-year-old veteran. “He is as fit as a fiddle - he has kept himself in unbelievable shape - and we’re really pleased to have him back.”

The 28-6 win against Giants was Rhinos’ third in four games. Friday’s visit of Betfred Super League leaders Hull KR will be a sterner test, but Handley stressed: “We are just working on what we can control as a team, trying to get us playing well together, regardless of the opposition. We’ve got a process we want to stick by and if we can stick to that process we normally come out on the right side of the result. We’ve been working on that and it has been working so far.”

Rhinos led 6-0 at half-time in each of their past two fixtures, before cutting loose in the second half. Handley insisted: “There were a lot of stoppages in [last week’s] game and it is tough to break people down when they are fresh. The whole concept of the game is to get the other team in a cycle, get them tackling and make them tired, to then break them apart.

“It’s not easy to score points when you are right on their line, it is probably the most difficult place to break teams down so it was tough for us, but we stuck with it. I’ve spoken to a couple of people who said it seemed frustrating, but we were patient and we knew we’d be able to break them in the second half and that’s what we did.”

Hull KR will challenge Leeds’ defence, but Handley reckons that aspect of their game is in good shape. “Everyone’s working hard in the system we are working with,” he said. “We wanted to keep Huddersfield to zero and we just missed out at the end.

“They had a couple of sets on our line and we probably got a bit tired, we made a few silly mistakes and when you are defending back to back sets it is tough for any team, against any opposition. We probably gave them a try rather than earning one so we were disappointed with that, but on the whole, our defence has probably been the biggest improvement this year.”